The Civil War era Ironclad USS Monitor, foundered in heavy seas off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, December 31st 1862. The paper focuses on the development and validation of numerical models of a ship foundering using the USS Monitor as a test subject. It begins with a brief account of vessel’s history and the circumstances leading up to the sinking. We then present the best estimate available for the vessel’s loading condition and hydrostatics. The ingress of water into the wreck at a number of locations is in the historical record. There was speculation by the survivors that the hull began to separate forward due to slamming in waves, but the degraded condition of the wreckage after 149 years on bottom does not easily lend itself to verify or refute this point.
Several linear and non-linear seakeeping models were run on this hull form, steaming, under tow and after the anchor was dropped just prior to the final sinking. The seakeeping models provide time histories of hydrostatic head at each of the down flooding locations.
The seakeeping models provide estimates of the slamming of the overhanging bow in moderate to large waves as reported in survivor testimony. The numerical tools developed to support this analysis will be able to support the analysis of other vessel foundering events.